What scares you?
Roller coasters?
Tarantulas?
Writing a synopsis?
Public speaking?
LA freeways at rush hour?
I can’t say that I love any of the things on the above list, but I’ll let you in on a little secret: writing the last half of a book is almost as frightening to me as any of the scary stuff I just listed.
Starting out with nothing but “Chapter One” on a page isn’t a piece of cake, but there’s something about the last half of the manuscript that’s worse than the first half for me.
I’m over the hump with the first draft of Mom Zone book # 4. Theoretically, I should feel great. I’m on the downward slope. Easy sailing from here on out, right?
Wrong. I feel like I’m bumbling around in the mist. I have an idea of where I’m going, but only hazy indications that I’m actually on the right track.
Maybe it’s because I have a better handle on the first half. When I start a book, I’ve got a good grip on the story. I’ve got the big picture. Things are in focus: the murder, the victim, the suspects, and the villain. I know the situation that ignites the story—the dead body, or in the case of this book, the missing body. I’ve got clues and red herrings, an interesting array of characters. and a sense of where the story is going. I certainly know the ending. It’s that middle part that’s a fuzzy.
So even though I start with fairly detailed path, I have to get into the book and start writing to see the details of the journey. As I write, characters reveal themselves in greater depth and I feel out plot holes that I didn’t see coming—hopefully before I fall into them.
For me, thinking/planning the overall narrative (i.e. notes, story broads, index cards, sticky notes, and the like) versus writing the book is like the difference between looking at a map and actually driving down the road. The map gives you the overall picture, but driving the road is the complete experience, rich in detail and change.
Right now, I’m still on the road.
I think. It’s hard to tell sometimes. It’s on one of those can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees kind of things.
A writer’s GPS would really be so handy. Can’t someone invent one? Or at least writer’s MapQeust!
So what about you? Got any phobias? Or, let us in on which part of the writing process scares the pants off you.
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I’m deathly afraid of anything with more than four legs.
I’m not afraid of roller coasters, but they make me sick.
Traffic worries me a little, although I’ve never been on the LA freeways, at rush hour or any other time.
I can do public speaking without much trouble. That doesn’t mean I don’t get jittery beforehand.
And I’m fine with synopses, although I prefer to avoid the blow-by-blow kind, because I find that after I’ve outlined it all, in detail, there isn’t much fun actually writing the book. Luckily, I have an agent who doesn’t like blow-by-blow synopses either, so I can get away with short teasers, for the most part.
I guess, if there’s a part of the writing process that scares the pants off me, it’s when it’s all done and off to the agent/editor, and I’m waiting to hear whether I’ve hit the mark or whether I’ll have to spend another month taking it apart, shaking it out, and putting it back together, differently. And it isn’t even the revisions that I dislike, it’s just that I hate being told it isn’t good enough. Hi, my name is Jennie (no, not really) and I’m a perfectionist…
by JennieB
on November 7th, 2007 at 8:34 am
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Grasshoppers… :shudder: Something about their eyes, and their legs, and those wings that seem to shoot out of nowhere. Ugh.
The worst past of the writing process for me (althought Jennie did bring up a whole new fear for me, since I’m not there yet) is the middle. I seem to know how to start and how to finish, but the middle third is like pulling teeth most of the time. This WIP, I hit the middle and went through it before I even realized I was there. I guess if you do it quick, “like a band-aid, George… Right off”, then it’s less painful for me.
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The only good bird is an extinct bird.
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“I find that after I’ve outlined it all, in detail, there isn’t much fun actually writing the book.”
So true, JennieB!
Waiting is a special form of torture worse than anything with more than four legs.
by Sara
on November 7th, 2007 at 9:22 am
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Way to go on getting through the middle quickly, B.E. I’m hoping the same thing happens to me. 
by Sara
on November 7th, 2007 at 9:23 am
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Birds, Tasha? I never would have guessed.
We have turkey vultures here and they’re kind of creepy, especially when you leave the house and find ten of them sitting on your roof, watching you.
by Sara
on November 7th, 2007 at 9:25 am
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Spiders. When my kids were born, I had an excuse to embrace my spider-response and pulverize them with a hockey stick, and then blame it on maternal instinct.
by Cynthia
on November 7th, 2007 at 10:35 am
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There are some things that creep me out, like insurance agents and dental work, I’m honestly not afraid of anything except maybe burning to death. Bugs, snakes, bears, cheerleaders with guns - none of it scares me.
Deadlines. Yeah, those scare me.
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I don’t share Tasha’s aversion to birds, but ten turkey vultures sitting on the roof, watching me and waiting for me to leave my house so they can swoop in, would do it.
by JennieB
on November 7th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
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Hey, Cynthia. Maternal instincts–now those can be scary!
by Sara
on November 7th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
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Thanks a lot David–I’ve got a dentist appointment this afternoon. I was trying to ignore it.
by Sara
on November 7th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
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The turkey vultures are rather unsettling, JennieB. The first time I heard them walking around on the roof, I thought a person was up there.
Needless to say, our dog doesn’t spend much time in the backyard when the turkey vultures are out.
by Sara
on November 7th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
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Snakes. Heights and small spaces (I went up in the Arch once. I thought I was going to die.). And the whole submission thing. But, mostly, snakes.
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Didn’t Harrison Ford say he hated snakes, too. Remember the scene with the snake pit in Raiders?
I just remembered last week’s Bones had a funny scene with snakes. Brennan jumped up on a box to escape them even though they weren’t poisonous snakes. Come to think of it, the whole episode was about fears. It even explored Booth’s fear of clowns.
I’ve never liked clowns all that much either. I’m not afraid of them, but I do think they’re a bit . . .odd.
by Sara
on November 7th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
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I’m afraid of being forgotten, of passing away with no one remembering who I was or that I had lived at all.
That, and bears.
by JDRhoades
on November 7th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
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JD, I don’t think you have to worry about the first one.
Bears, on the other hand . . I don’t know. Be like me and avoid camping, then you can cross those off your list, too.
by Sara
on November 7th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
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For a while my parents lived in a house where about 300 very rare ducks roosted on their roof every night–and awakened them peeping every dawn. My folks were cool with it, but I think a lot of people (not just Tasha) would be weirded out by too many of anything hanging around.
The writing process? Writing the sales pitch letter for non-fiction–where I have to explain why I’m competent and how many people are possible readers.
by Cynthia
on November 7th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
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The number of possible readers is always a tough one to nail down, Cynthia.
And I thought ten turkey vultures were bad…
by Sara
on November 7th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
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